Burdick, A. B.
My line 214, as noted in TGC 3, started as a single callus shoot from the pimpinellifolium haploid.
The apical meristem of this shoot was removed and smeared for chromosome count. Cells with 48 chromosomes were found and also some with 12 chromosomes. On the basis of these rough counts the line was listed as a haploid-tetraploid periclinal chimera. Although no sections from embedded material were studied in this case, the shoot was judged to be periclinal rather than anticlinal or laterally sectored since all previous studies of these polyploid chimeras have shown them to be periclinal.
The shoot went on to produce fruit with seed on several inflorescences. Seed were obtained from a composite of four fruits harvested from four different inflorescences. Unfortunately, the seed was put away in bulk and no record made of the inflorescence from which it came.
These seeds were planted in the greenhouse and two seedlings were saved and transplanted to the field. At maturity it was determined that one of these plants was diploid and the other, tetraploid. This can be taken as evidence that the original shoot was not only haploid and tetraploid but, probably, also diploid, i.e. it was a triple (n-2n-4n) periclinal chimera. It is not probable that the haploid tissue in the shoot spontaneously doubled to give diploid because this does not occur in haploids, normally.
Another interesting fact may be adduced. If a polyploid periclinal chimera will give rise to both diploid and tetraploid flower tissue, it means that the relationship between histogen and tissue is not constant and that at least two different histogens can give rise to flower tissue in the tomato.